Toyota’s insistence on pursuing relevance will result in a bunch of new in-car gadgetry, based on descriptions in trademark applications the company filed this week. Here’s the breakdown.

“Intellitouch,” Toyota explains in its supporting paperwork, refers to “electronic touch sensitive controllers, sold as an integral part of motor vehicles; electronic touch sensitive panels, sold as an integral part of motor vehicles.” This could just refer to a new brand name for touchscreen navigation and infotainment systems, but if that’s the case, why give it a name at all? We’re reading it to indicate a touch-sensitive dashboard, like Cadillac Cue and MyFordTouch, and far more than just another version of the Entune and Enform-branded navigation/infotainment systems in other Toyota and Lexus vehicles today. Toyota does have a number of patents and pending patent applications for touch-sensitive in-car tech, from navigation screens to “Reconfigurable Tactile Control Display Systems”—in other words, something like the Cadillac and Ford systems.

The other application is for the unsexy-sounding “EBIN,” which is probably meant to be read as “eBin,” based on the description Toyota provided: “Storage containers for handheld electronic devices, sold as an integral part of motor vehicles; storage containers with built in inductive battery charges for handheld electronic devices, sold as an integral part of motor vehicles.” The bit about inductive battery charging is the key here; it means that the car can wirelessly charge cell phones—so long as the phone either is built with the charging tech or the owner buys a special case that makes induction charging possible. Just drop the phone on the charging mat and you’re good to go. Chrysler is starting to roll out similar tech, and a recent General Motors trademark application for “Dockspot” points to that company offering a wireless charging feature as well.

Inductive phone charging should be easy to implement and pain-free to use, as the technology has been on the consumer market for several years. On the other hand, touch-sensitive dashboards prompted our John Phillips to title a recent column “Good Thing I’m Not a Gun Owner.” The systems seem to be improving, but aren’t perfect just yet. Maybe Toyota’s user-friendly philosophy—the same reason that dash buttons in a Camry are labeled in 124-point font—will help guide development.